This is a work in progress.
The Square
21x21"
Inkjet Prints
~ Part I ~
The Symmetrical Photographs
~ Part II ~
"Other" 21x21" Square Inkjet Prints
"Squaring the Circle"
Introduction
Given my background of studying Carl Jung's theory of the Creative Unconscious, his concept of the (unified) Self, his in-depth research into archetypes, symbols, medieval alchemy and synchronicity; and given I wrote an MFA thesis paper on Jung's theories in relationship to my Creative Process in photography and created a blog photography project entitled As Above, So Below; and given the fact that I (along with my wife Gloria) have been practicing Siddha Yoga Meditation with a Siddha Guru (Gurumayi Chidvilasananda) since 1987; and given the fact that I have strived to give visual-photographic form to the transcendent idea of The Oneness of Being in relation to my concept of the Symbolic Photograph, and in particular with images I call four-fold Symmetrical Photographs . . . it should be no surprise that I would be interested in the alchemical idea of "Squaring the Circle" which, essentially, is the idea of conjoining opposites--Heaven (the circle) & Earth (the square) into a "singular whole," a "higher synthesis," a True, living Symbol which unites images of the material world with their corresponding interior-spiritual image counterparts.
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I love the square format. It insists on concentrated, intensely direct seeing and, in many ways, a simple and yet elegant straightforward formal-pictorial language. I love the circle for its roundness of being; its archetypal cosmic relationship to the sun, the moon, our planet, and all other things which are essentially round in their True nature.
I have always thought of my symmetrical images (nearly every one of them) as "circular" or "round" images. And I have come to insist, after an exploratory period of experimenting with my new inkjet printer (obtained in January, 2023) and making over 800 12x12" inkjet prints with it, that my symmetrical photographs should be set in the square format, and that they should be much larger than the 12x12" inkjet prints in order to get the full visual essence of this kind of imagery, I have at last initiated this project dedicated especially to my symmetrical photographs and the relatively larger print size of the 21x21" format.
The simple fact is that in general my symmetrical images work better in the larger print sizes, even though I prefer in many ways the intimacy of the 12x12" inkjet print image. I encourage you to visit my 12x12" inkjet print project Infinity for what I consider to be some important contextual information regarding my symmetrical images.
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All of images published in this blog project existed first as 12x12" inkjet prints. The image size, 21x21" dimensions, includes the surrounding tonal mattes; the image is printed on a 24x24" white paper base which provides a 1.5" surrounding white border on all four sides.
I have divided this collection of 21x21" inkjet prints into two parts: Part One consists of only Symmetrical images; Part Two consists all other images I have printed 21x21" in size including some symmetrical images as well.
Under each image I have provided a project title and a project image number, and below that I have provided titles (mostly descriptive) and in some cases below the title I have included links to related projects and perhaps some written commentary.
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Before you begin looking at the images, I do want to bring your attention how best to view my blog published images, especially for those of you who are viewing this project with a desktop or laptop computer.
If you are viewing this blog project on a desktop or laptop computer, I encourage you to try to access what I assure you is a preferable, alternate blog viewing mode that presents the image enlarged, in a dark tonal environment, and with a much sharper, luminous and tonally more accurate rendering of the image compared to that which first appears in the blog's default, published viewing mode. ~ Please read the brief statement below and, if you would like more technical information, I invite you to click on the blue hyperlinked blog page title How to Best View My Online Blog Images.
A brief note about "How to Best View My Online Blog Images"
If you are viewing this project on a desktop computer or a laptop, I encourage you to read my blog explanation regarding How to Best View My Online Blog Images. In brief, click on the images once, then once again; this will (hopefully) enlarge the image and present it in a dark tonal environment at its maximum viewing quality in terms of image sharpness, luminance, tonal gradations, etc. Once you have entered this alternate viewing space you can then use your zoom-in & zoom-out keyboard (or menu) options to adjust the image size, and you can darken or lighten your computer's screen brightness to suit your equipment and viewing preferences.
The 21x21" Square
Inkjet Prints
Part I
The Symmetrical Photographs
(21x21" includes the surrounding tonal matte;
all images are printed on a 24x24" white paper base)
(A Circle of Vermont Leaves, Yellow, Brown)
21x21" Square Image #2 Symmetrical Photograph
(Translucent Vermont Leaves)
21x21" Square Image #3 Symmetrical Photograph
(Vermont leaves, Tibetan-like Mandala)
(Visit my Field of Vision Project)
To learn more about my Symmetrical Photographs visit
(Golden Apparition in the Vermont Woods Over Broad Brook)
21x21" Square Image #5 Symmetrical Photograph
(In the Woods, Faint, Lace) (Visit my project In the Woods)
(The Meadow with a Geometrical Openings & Approaching Storm Clouds)
(Sunset, South Meadow suspended in orange and blue sky with dark clouds)
(Blue Nocturnal Subterranean Angel)
21x21" Square Image #9 Symmetrical Photograph
(Blue Angel of Tears)
(Snow Angel Phallus-Crossed)
21x21" Square Image #12 Symmetrical Photograph
(White flowering green bush)
(Tree Limb - Angel)
21x21" Square Image #14 Symmetrical Photograph
(Snow Burst)
21x21" Square Image #15 Symmetrical Photograph
(Niagara Falls) (Visit my Falling Water project)
21x21" Square Image #16 Symmetrical Photograph
(Blue Angel - Blue Pearl)
21x21" Square Image #17 Symmetrical Photograph
(Broad Brook, Green pool)
21x21" Square Image #18 Symmetrical Photograph
Broad Brook Pool (with Blue edges)
21x21" Square Image #19 Symmetrical Photograph
(The light inside a dark stone in the green waters of Broad Brook after a rain storm)
(Broad Brook Angel)
21x21" Square Image #21 Symmetrical Photograph
(Tree Trunk with radiating shadows)
(A Walk in the Garden)
(Red & Yellow Star Flowers)
21x21" Square Image #24 Symmetrical Photograph
Rock Flower (with a jewel or crystal-like center)
This is but one of several "Rock-Flower" symmetrical photographs I have made.
This one in particular invokes a passage from the Sri Guru Gita, a chant my
wife and I perform often, consisting of 181verses. Here is verse 115 in its
English translation of the Hindu version:
Just as the image of a crystal is seen in a mirror, so the bliss,
which is consciousness, is reflected in the Self and
the realization comes, "Indeed, I am That."
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21x21" Square Image #25 Symmetrical Photograph
Stone Face / New Mexico Stone birds eating its own tail
21x21" Square Image #26 Symmetrical Photograph
(Encounter with a pile of colorful Fall Leaves inside expanding Shadows on Broad Brook Road)
21x21" Square Image #27 Symmetrical Photograph
(Butterfly, with green center (the stone wall that runs next to Broad Brook Road)
Broad Brook Angel
21x21" Square Image #29 Symmetrical Photograph
(Silvery Light)
21x21" Square Image #30 Symmetrical Photograph
(Broad Brook Pool with colorful stones and reflections of the sky)
21x21" Square Image #31 Symmetrical Photograph
(Inversed Snow Angel with Blue Limbs)
21x21" Square Image #32 Symmetrical Photograph
(Two Blue Stones Broad Brook)
(Tree Limb Shadow on a Large Stone)
(Sacred Space Bird Wings)
(Silent Dialogue over the North Meadow & Pond)
Sunset Lake, VT. (Dark and white tree limbs, blue water)
(Elephant-like figure with both hands reaching toward its eyes)
21x21" Square Image #38 Symmetrical Photograph:
Sacred Emblem (stones in a shallow river bed)
Ancient Column Fragments under water, in a mineral pool in Turkey
Visit my project Prayer Stones (Chapter 1 of "An Imaginary Book")
Visit my project Prayer Stones (Chapter 1 of "An Imaginary Book")
21x21" Square Image #40 Symmetrical photograph
("Black Mask and colored eyes") (Vermont brook)
(Fish Feeding Time, a pool in Alcatraz, Spain -- green eyes in the center)
(Visit my project Crystalline Paradise: Moorish Spain)
21x21" Square Image #42 Symmetrical photograph
Khidr: Earth Angel, Green Man
(Maple Tree Limbs & Leaves, in flight toward a soft blue sky)
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(Snow & Ice Form -- Hour Glass) (visit my Silver World project)
(Costa Rica Sunset) (Visit my project Costa Rica)
21x21" Square Image #46 Symmetrical photograph
(Ivy surrounding a garage window - the Nov. 2024 version)
see my ICON project
21x21" Square Image #47 Symmetrical photograph
(Golden Winter morning light - with blue center)
see my Baby Sitting project
21x21" Square Image #48 Symmetrical photograph
(Sunlit foggy morning in Vermont)
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Part II
All Other 21x21" Square Inkjet Prints
printed on 24x24" paper base
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #49 "Moon"
(Inversed, Circled, Birds on Telephone lines collage Chromatic Field)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #50 Symmetrical Photograph
(Blue Ceiling)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #51 Symmetrical Photograph
(View through a sliding door screen & reflections)
(Reflection in Window) (Visit my Robert Ryman project)
(Negative/Positive Garage Facade with Pole Shadow & dark sky)
(Industrial Fenced-off Space & Shadow)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #55 (Faint Photograph, Hudson River)
Visit my project The Hudson River Valley
(Visit my project Faint Photographs)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #57 Faint Portrait Photograph,
(the Presence of a Person)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #58 (Out of Focus Face, Eyes Closed)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #60 (Dark Divided Head) (O.F.) (Rome Colosseum)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #61 Faint Photograph,
("Frightened" eyes--one hand to side of the face)
(Visit my project Portraits & Faces)
from my project "Silent Dialogues"
(See my project Line Drawing Portraits)
21x21" Square Image Part 2: #66 Symmetrical Photograph
(Eye - Golden Shadows)
(Visit my Blue Pearl project)
(Looking over the North Meadow, Woods & Pond at the sunset lit clouds) (Version 4)
This is a new version of an image which I have always experienced as being filled with
divine/Angelic presence. At the same time it invokes the remembrance--with great
respect and gratitude--of Alfred Stieglitz a very early mentor of mine when I was a
young college student studying photography. His series of cloud photographs,
which he called Equivalents (and Songs of the Sky) filled me with wonder,
the feeling I experience with this image. The dark matte tone has been
difficult for me to get just right; the idea I have is that it should
resonate with the darker clouds in the imaged which hint of a
coming or passing storm. ~ I have always believed that I am
a picture-maker, and thus free to do what I must to get an
image to resonate for me in way that is in synch with
what I feel is alive within the depths of my heart or
soul. This often gets me in touch with a calming
silence. This Self-portrait is, I think, a good
image with which to conclude this project.
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This project was first published and announced on
my bog's Welcome Page
October 27, 2024
revised Nov. 2024
Related Blog Project Links
Note: my 2023-24 Inkjet Print Project exists as an online, digital document in the form of the following three blog links:
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
